Observations on Obesity

I just had a really interesting conversation with the spouse of a very obese woman. I’ve never met her, and this chat ensued the first time I spoke with this man.

Shopping at Whole Foods, a friendly looking chap in his mid-fifties approached me in the produce section and commented on the abundance of greens in my cart. One thing led to another, as it does, and the topic of Paleo came up (surprise, surprise!).

He, looking quite fit and young, surprised me when he shared that his wife is obese, and had been on and off diets as long as he could remember and had never found anything that worked. Her newest revelation, apparently, was that she had an epiphany that food should not necessary taste good, it should just be ‘good for you’. That approach is what she’s using right now, and has been for the last month, and she’s lost twenty pounds by eating boring food that she does not remotely enjoy.

And that is what she thinks the answer is.

How long will that last?

He also shared that he notices that when she eats, she takes big mouthfuls one after the other and seems to be doing so all day long. He said he didn’t know why she wouldn’t sit down, place her utensils down after each bite, chew, enjoy, process…

It provided really interesting insight to me.

How many people that are obese are in the same situation? Not really letting it register what they’re eating, or how much, and after eating in this manner for years, don’t even remember what it feels like to recognize the body’s cues for hunger or satiety? And thinking that the only remedy is a diet filled with bland celery sticks, egg whites and boiled chicken breasts?

Gosh, what they’re missing!

Imagine if we could introduce Paleo on a broad scale to America ‘at large’?

Are you someone who noticed that once you started eating Paleo, regardless of whether or not you wanted to lose weight, you began to shed extra weight?

Now imagine if someone who was obese did that? We’re taking tremendous amounts of excess fat that could be lost, naturally and healthfully in a period of time which would certainly be such that there would be no question that it was working!

No gastric bypass, no ‘six months of nothing but liquid shakes from the doctor’, no starving then binging…

Yes, of course, there are other issues involved; emotional eating being one that plays a huge role, which may need to be addressed from additional angles such as support groups and therapy, but the bottom line is that a permanent, healthy change must be made, or else all the efforts, not to mention cost would be in vain.